How Should I Prepare my Pets for Spays and Neuters?
What do I need to do to prepare my pets for their
operations – my female and male are getting
“fixed” today.
Kelly
Cardiff, CA
For young cats and dogs, surgery does not require a great deal of home preparation. The most important thing is to ensure that their stomachs are empty when you drop them off for the operations. Food or water in the stomach may cause them to regurgitate during the procedure, which can lead to pneumonia or throat problems. Your veterinarian should provide specific fasting instructions prior to the surgery.
Some veterinarians prescribe oral pain medications or antibiotics to be given the day before surgery. These are not used in all cases. If your vet has prescribed these medications, be sure to follow the instructions carefully. If your pets are on regular medications that have not been prescribed specifically for the surgeries, ask your veterinarian whether they should be administered in the period leading up to the operations.
Although you did not ask about the days after the surgeries, I have some advice to offer on the matter. Monitor your pets´appetites, thirst and production of urine and feces carefully. It is not abnormal to have a mildly depressed appetite for 24 hours after surgery. Mild constipation is also common. However, call your vet if your pet experiences complete loss of appetite or total inability to urinate or defecate.
As well, monitor your pets´activity levels. They should be kept quiet for several days after surgery. Do not let them play roughly together. And, call your vet if either one seems exceptionally lethargic or inactive.
All pets need medications to treat pain after surgery. Follow your veterinarian´s instructions for these medicines.
Check the incisions daily. Call your vet if you notice swelling, redness, discharge, a strange odor, or an open area on the incision. Do not allow your pets to lick their incisions.
I have one final piece of advice. The vast majority of spays and neuters go well and do not lead to complications. Nonetheless, do not hesitate to call your vet if you have any questions or suspect that something might be wrong. It is better to be safe than sorry.
You have questions. 
Why do vets offer varying levels of care for our pets, making the owner make the choices for the best medical procedures? For instance, for my dog’s neuter, I had to make the decision for, Plan A – just neuter, Plan B-neuter, pain meds during and after surgery, Plan C-neuter, pain meds & blood work.
That seems irresponsible to make the owner decide the best course of action based on price.
My vet makes me choose the procedure also! It is so unfair, because as you want to save a little money, you really want what is best for your dog. No matter how cheap the first offer, I always go for the most expensive one, because it is worth knowing that my doggie will be happy and healthy.
For me… Plan C.
My mom is so worried about everything when it comes to my care. She agrees with Kayla. Yes, give the full program and she will pay, my health and well being is important to her.
I love my vet though, I never feel as though he is trying to sell me additional services and also has my best interest at heart.
Linda and Kayla,
Sadly, it is the owners of many pets who have made us veterinarians HAVE to offer those choices. We can’t force a higher level of care on someone who doesn’t want it. If we don’t offer the varying levels of care, one of two things often happens:
1. We’re accused of padding the bill by requiring “unnecessary” pain medication and bloodwork. (Let me be clear: it is NOT unnecessary….but many clients think it is, no matter how much we try to educate them.)
2. The owner will refuse to have the procedure done altogether, because it becomes more money than they want to spend. They’ll leave and then the animal gets *nothing* at all.
That leaves us in a moral dilemma. We, as the doctors of your pets, OF COURSE want them to have the best outcome possible. No, money isn’t our greatest concern, but we do have to pay our staffs and pay the bills for the equipment and supplies we have to use in order to provide that level of care (not to mention our incredibly expensive education in the first place.) But is it better to at least get the animal spayed or neutered without benefit of bloodwork or postoperative pain medication….or have them walk out the door only to produce uncounted, unwanted offspring and suffer the future health consequences of being unaltered?
My vet offers the same three tiered choice. For my forst dog-Agadore- my chosen standard poodle-we were no expenses barred. It was planned for.
With Beaner-the rescued pitbull- again the cadillac of choices. He has so malnourished he needed every chance we could give him.
With Chief-the unplanned rescue- I only have a limited amount of funds. I couldn’t NOT take him in. But I had to be realistic. He got plan B- the neuter and the pain meds and the IV. I had to pass up the bloodwork- I just didn’t have the funds. Chief is a huge dog. I just went and bought 105 lbs of dog food. Quality food-Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul. And he’s started his innoculations.
I’ve gone over $600 invested in this wonderful dog- all of a sudden with no planning.
I don’t love Chief any less than Agadore or Beaner. But faced with an unexpected addition to our pack, I did the best I could do.
I APPRECIATE that my vet is up front about the cost and offers several layers of care….instead of leaving it up to the owner to broach the subject.
In a perfect worl, we’d ALL choose the high end care. But sometimes, we have to spread what we have among more pups. I don’t think if Chief had died I would have regretted it. I would have done the best I could for him, and I know my vet would have, too.